MRT commuter upset with ‘entitled’ SG seniors who don’t queue for escalators, compares their behaviour to Japan’s elderly

SINGAPORE: Should we be more patient and accommodating towards elderly commuters on the MRT, or is it time we start calling them out when they behave inconsiderately?

This question sparked quite a debate online after a commuter took to Reddit to share her frustration over some seniors who, she felt, showed little regard for others by cutting queues at escalators.

Posting on the r/SMRTrabak forum on Friday (Oct 24), she recounted one incident where a “very mobile senior” blatantly cut the line. “[This senior] briskly walked past me, entered the escalator on the right, then suddenly shifted to the left and stepped directly in front of me.”

“That move was very sudden. I was startled and likely showed my shock with a strange look on my face. In return, she gave me a weird look, as if saying, ‘What happened? What’s wrong with you?’”

In another incident, she recalled overhearing another senior telling her younger companion that she wanted to cut the queue. Although the younger person suggested taking the lift instead and reminded her that it was not right to skip the line, the older woman refused, insisting that “she did not want to wait.”

She also drew a comparison between what she observed in Singapore and what she experienced during her recent trip to Japan. Having returned only a few days before writing the post, she said she was genuinely impressed by how disciplined and considerate the Japanese are in public spaces.

“While Japanese society has its areas that Singaporeans might not be able to figure out, such as the part on excessive packaging, there are also things we can learn from. One thing that struck me was how most Japanese, including seniors, queue patiently for escalators.”

“In contrast, some Singaporean seniors don’t queue for escalators. I feel they act entitled, and they often cite their years of life experience, but their years of life experience don’t equate to how they live out that experience.”

“Old people have this idea that they deserve respect simply due to age.”

Many people weighed in on her post. While some felt elderly commuters should be given more leeway, others argued that everyone, regardless of age, should wait for their turn and refrain from cutting in line.

One Redditor explained, “When you get older, your patterns will change and you’ll definitely become one of ‘those people.’ We all grow old. I don’t think it’s entitlement, but rather something society has accepted. That’s why we have seats for them and priority queues; some can’t stand for too long, or they just want to get home faster because they’re tired.”

“We’ll all get there one day, and eventually you’ll realise, ‘Yeah, I need a seat. I need to take the escalator faster,’ and so on. It’s just nature as we grow older.”

Another commented, “SG seniors are some of the most entitled people in the world. I think it’s the combination of getting their CPF and officially graduating into the oldest, most ‘senior’ (and therefore, according to Confucian culture, most respected) class of citizens. It makes them feel like they don’t have to show anyone any respect.”

A third added, “Old people have this idea that they deserve respect simply due to age. And this respect means that they are allowed to do anything. I hate this. I really do. I also hate the people who enable this kind of thinking to continue generation by generation. I hate the people who say, ‘You will be old someday too.’ 

“Do these same people feel that they are entitled to bully the younger generation because they took the bullying when they were younger?”

In other news, a foreign student at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has shared on social media that, after struggling to secure an internship in the city, “a part of her is now considering going back to Europe”.

In her post on the r/singaporefi subreddit, she explained that although she truly wanted to build a life here in Singapore, the difficulty of finding an internship has left her “feeling discouraged”.

Read more: NUS foreign student struggles to land internship, considers returning to Europe